The CEO of "Meta" Mark Zuckerberg has said that senior officials from US President Joe Biden's administration pressured his company and its affiliated social networks to censor COVID-19-related content during the pandemic. He added that he would resist if something similar happened in the future, Reuters reported, as quoted by BTA.
In a letter sent yesterday, Zuckerberg told the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives that he regretted not speaking up earlier about the pressure, as well as certain decisions he, as the owner of Facebook, had made. ;, “Instagram“ and “WhatsApp“ has taken regarding the deletion of certain content.
„In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, for months consistently pressured our teams to censor certain COVID-19-related content, including humor and satire, and expressed great irritation to the teams us if we disagree”, Zuckerberg wrote in a letter that was published on the “Facebook” page. of the Judiciary Committee in the lower house of Congress.
„I believe the government pressure is wrong and I regret not being more open. I also think we made certain choices that in retrospect and with new information we would not have made today”, he wrote.
The White House and “Meta“ have not responded to requests for comment.
The letter is addressed to the chairman of the committee, Republican Jim Jordan. In “Facebook” the commission called the letter “a great victory for freedom of speech” and stated that Zuckerberg admitted that “Facebook“ has censored Americans.
In the letter, Zuckerberg also said he would not be making any contributions to support this year's presidential election, so as to “not play a role one way or the other” on the ballot in November.
During the last election, which took place in 2020 amid the pandemic, the billionaire contributed $400 million through his wife's joint philanthropic foundation to support election infrastructure, a move that drew criticism and lawsuits from some groups who said the movement was partisan.